Friday, October 19, 2012

Potash company partners with Hopi Tribe

Passport
Potash announced that has signed a letter of intent (“LOI”) with the Hopi Indian
Tribe. [Right, Passport holdings in green, Hopi lands in pink.Credit, Passport Potash] According to the company:

The LOI,
which is non-binding, is an outgrowth of the access and information sharing
agreement signed between the parties in March 2011, and authorizes the
engineering firm, ERCOSPLAN, to combine the Hopi and Passport land sections in
the upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) commissioned by Passport,
and lays the groundwork for potential joint exploration and development of the
potash resources in the Holbrook Basin.

The
LOI further witnesses the intent of the parties to jointly explore the
contiguous land sections to determine their combined economic potential.The exploration program will be based upon
recommendations from ERCOSPLAN and purposed to maximize the potential resource
on the combined properties.

The
parties also intend, based on the geologic findings on the properties, to
proceed towards negotiating a definitive mining development agreement (“MDA”)
between the parties, and further agree to conduct the MDA negotiations in good
faith with an understanding that time is of the essence.

The
inclusion of the private properties owned by the Hopi tribe in the PEA will
necessitate delaying the release of the PEA for 60 to 90 days to allow
ERCOSPLAN to incorporate the Hopi data.The PEA will be addressed to and owned by both PPI and the Tribe, who
shall each be entitled to use and rely on the PEA for both their joint and
individual purposes.